So, let’s say you want to compete with Ford Motor Company’s high cost GoBike service. You could offer to buy up some parking spaces from the SFMTA and you know, plan out how big your concomitant billboards will be, but uh oh, FoMoCo occupies the field with an exclusive agreement signed by SFGov.

So hey, who do you think just loves this massive Barrier To Entry? Ford Motor Company. Hey, whose representatives so much as said this at meetings ‘n stuff? Ford Motor Company’s

So IDK.

Hey, is this orange-red bike “better” than a Ford Motor Company GoBike?

Hell yes.

And is it cheaper?

Well, pretty much.

Anyway, my points are that This Harmless Rental Bike Locked Up on Market is Seen as a HUGE THREAT by Ford Motor Company AND that this whole, expensive seven-year deal is A Dubious Public/Private Partnership.

And I’ll do the math for you, Gentle Reader, and I’ll show my “work,” heh:

I think Ford could afFORD to pay about $10 an hour more to each one of its near minimum wage GoBike bike rental workers, especially in high-rent cities such as San Francisco (especially considering all the advertising they’re getting, especially considering how much they jacked up prices from the little-used, low-profile, tax and fee-payer-funded Bay Area Bike Share.)

What’s that, FORD is just like Citi in New York, a mere sponsor? Well, not really, as FORD tracks you, the GoBike user, more than Citibank does. I mean, does Citi track how fast you drive your car the day after you install an app to use a bikeshare rental bike in NYC? IDTS. Like, why would it care? But does FORD?

“Listen, here’s the deal. The opportunity is not bikes. That’s not why Ford’s in it. The opportunity is data, and the data is super valuable because it tells us these invisible paths that people are taking in this complex city in terms of how they want to get around.”

Now, who thought this was great, but the corporate employees/contractors @FordGoBike in, who knows, North Carolina, Michigan, New Yawk? Someplace like that. (Someplace where Ford can rightfully call $16.13 per hour “living wages” the way they call that very same hourly rate a living wage in Frisco. But anyway.)

Proof of this is in the ghost of the deleted Tweet, what the Ford People took down. See?

Speaking of which, you can’t race Ford Motor Company rental bikes. It’s against your agreement. (Say hey, did these roadie racers even sign an agreement and pay their money and their overtime fees? Who paid for the expense of this hours-long Ford Motor Company bikeshare promotion on the Golden Gate Bridge? IDK, but it appears to have been organized through FaceBook.)

Speaking of which, Ford Motor Company made a commitment to not compete with legacy Frisco-to-Sausalito bike rental outfits. And yet, compete they do, over and over, every day, over the bridge and back. If you don’t believe me, have your editor assign you to the GoBike beat and ask for the GPS record for these bikes, why not? Oh, what’s that, there’s no GPS on Ford Motor Company rental bikes? Mmmm, so how is Ford tracking all these people? Perhaps through their smartphones? Perhaps 24-7, like how fast you drive your car, how hard you press your brakes, gee, do people realize that they’re signing up for all this? NB: Search for “DO NOT TRACK” to see how the GOBIKE people react to such a command? (Spoiler: Ford has zero respect for any such Do Not Track anything, sry.))

Speaking of which, didn’t Ford agree to get rid of its Gobike On The Bridge marketing, due to its competition with local rental mom and pops? Well, Tweeting about this race kind of goes against that, non?

So for all these reasons, RACING, BRIDGING, COMPETING, Ford Motor Company rethought the matter and then deleted its Tweet(s).

Oh, here’s one. Actually, ever since these new bikes came out I haven’t been able to cross The Bridge without seeing tourists on branded bikes heading to or coming back from Marin County. I suppose if they cost only $12 per hour to rent, then that price might seem reasonable compared with that charge by the legacy local bike rental businesses already established in tourist areas, so over to Sausalito they go:

“I picked 2 Bikes for the day pass for $9.95 each. I thought that was good price for a day and only rode 2 hours and 15 minutes and returned the Bikes. However, they charged me $73 that is super expensive.“

“Original price was $88, now $149, a increase of $61.“

“…irritating pricing structure: you only get 30 minutes at a time even if you buy a day pass. Apparently this structure was a result of pressure from Blazing Saddles on the government to protect their high margin tourist business. These heavy bikes can’t take you far in 30 minutes, so I think that’ll have to change for the system to work for anyone other than the most casual occasional user or dedicated bike share enthusiast. The bike we got on a day pass ended up costing an extra $6 for a grand total of $16 for 48 minutes of bike riding.“

“Bicycle sharing is a sustainable, healthy and community-based transport option that enhances urban livability and mobility. We are launching this spring/summer, bringing 7,000 bikes and over 540 stations to San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville and San Jose!

To help us launch we are looking for qualified individuals to fill many open job positions:

Field Team Members Station TrackRedistribution of bikes through the systemStation Maintenance, Appearance and RepairValet at designated locationsGeneral daily duties

This was the fear of local bike rental companies when they heard that Michigan-based Ford Motor Company and New Yawk-based Motivate International were teaming up with SFGov to spend mid-eight figures(!) to market “FORD” around Frisco.

And then somebody(ies) pulled this switcheroo what would’ve turned the “last mile” 30-minute maximum service of Bay Area Bike Share (BABS) into a three hour tour. A three hour tour, sponsored by FoMoCo.

But then things got reversed and so our tourists still need to fret about checking in within 30 minutes, or they face a financial penalty, a pretty severe one, actually, costing some tourists hundreds of dollars (even after getting the 50% discount what they’ll offer you if you complain enough, from Singapore, Bremen, Timbuktu, after seeing an unexpected charge on their Visa bill.)

No matter – here are some of the brand-new FORD bikes returning from Marin County…

…heading towards Marin County…

…and heading towards the Golden Gate Bridge or Fort Point or who knows, but even this dude is straying far away from the intended use zone, non?

Anyway, I’ve got more shots iffin you want me to dig them up. But I haven’t seen anyone pushing them uphill, which would almost be mandatory for most tourists if they wanted to actually try to make it back to town without relying on a ferry boat.

Now it’s not my job to worry about how much money local bidness makes, but the existing home-grown bike rental companies of Frisco have a point when they recall how the focus of Bay Area Bike Share was going to be on the “last mile,” so the upshot was a 30-minute limit on each rental period with SEVERE penalties for taking a bike out all day, ’cause otherwise heavily government-subsidized BABS would be in direct competition.

Well, I guess Ford wanted to get something out of its $50 million investment so the three-hour GoPass was born.

Wouldn’t we be better off just buying Walmart bikes (for like $74 each, I’m srsly) and handing them out for free to SF citizens instead of getting involved with Ford, if the goal is to get more ppl on bikes?